Trouble
by pseudo-vulture
Summary: In a last, desperate attempt to save Tanith, Ghastly attempts to find the Ghost Rider but Johnny Blaze has problems of his own. (Set after TMS and Spirit Of Vengeance) [Sequel to Hell & Consequences]
1. Chapter 1

**The promised follow up to Hell & Consequences. (This chapter has been finished for almost a week but I couldn't think of a name for the story, sorry)**

**I've had to guess the city Johnny lives in, I know it was Texas but couldn't find specifics. And can we please just pretend that his background story didn't change a bit in Spirit of Vengeance because that just makes everything confusing...**

**If RedDawn1 is reading this: the wonders of the Internet! (And you're right, England English is weird)**

* * *

Ghastly Bespoke was sat in another silent library. He had been all night, forfeiting sleep again to try and find a cure. Another night of failure. He'd looked through every single book that could possibly have anything to do with Remnants and all of them said the same, the exact same as they did every night he spent in these places: give up. And honestly, he was beginning to believe them.

Maybe there wasn't a way to get Tanith back. After the recent events with the God Killers, it was looking increasingly less likely that he'd ever get Tanith, his Tanith, back.

Leads were few and far between and they'd all led to dead ends, both with curing and even just _finding_ her. Every time anyone got close to it there was a bloodbath. Ghastly knew the British Sanctuaries as well as several of the European ones had lost whole battalions of Cleavers to Tanith, Sanguine and whatever powerful allies the sources said they'd gained and lost just as quickly. The body count was rising.

At this rate, even if he did finally manage to get her back he wouldn't be able to fend off the other Sanctuaries. Ravel was having a lot of trouble, especially with the English sanctuary after she'd killed, no, _executed_ Grand Mage Strom. A war was coming, anyone could see that, and Ireland needed all the allegiances it could get.

He looked around the shelves of the library again. As much as he hated to admit it, this would have been a lot easier if China Sorrow's library hadn't been blown up. There wasn't a single known collection as large and extensive as her's had been in the entire world, never mind just in Ireland. Even Gordon Edgely's private collection was nowhere near as extensive, even though the books were rarer. Most of the books that could have helped them even a little would have been in China's.

He sighed quietly and stood up, leaving the remainder of the books on the table to look through in the morning. He was exhausted as usual, he hadn't had a single good night's sleep since becoming an Elder and he wouldn't _until_, not if, he'd saved Tanith because he refused to acknowledge that that might never happen, he couldn't lose hope. This new revelation of hopelessness was not helping.

Maybe he'd have more luck in his searching when he was at least slightly more well rested.

* * *

On the other side of the world, Johnny Blaze grinned in a half relieved, half insane way.

They hadn't removed any of his things, even though he hadn't been back here in over five years. He would have thought that someone; the police, the mages, maybe Roarke or even Roxanne would have been up here at least once by now. Then again, maybe not. What would have been the point? They all knew he wasn't there. They police had apparently been persuaded of his innocence. The mages, with the exception of Tanith who'd probably forgotten, didn't know where he lived. Roarke had lost interest when Johnny had lost control and now the devil wasn't a threat to anyone. As for Roxanne, she might have come at some point but it was probably a few years ago when he'd first started to run.

He pushed his bike over to the only empty space with the others and looked around. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust but he was home. He'd been away longer than any time he'd done a tour before but with the amount of people he'd been fleeing and hiding from, it wasn't that surprising. It felt good to be home, even though he was going to have to spend a long time cleaning.

Johnny wandered over to his stereo and pressed the on button, the speakers instantly blaring out a Carpenters' song from the exact place he'd left it the last time he'd been here. He smiled, this time significantly less maniacally, and fell back onto his sofa, dust flying into the air.

Now he was finally home and in control, he could get back to his stunts. Even if many of them had been to prove a point, he had enjoyed his job.

Although for now he'd settle for a long sleep in his own bed and a few days of eating jelly beans and watching monkey videos.

* * *

Valkyrie glanced at her phone under the desk. As much as she wanted Tanith back, none of this research had lead them anywhere /near/ being closer to extracting the Remnant. She hated research at the best of times and this was getting ridiculous. All these books were useless but it wasn't like they could just Google 'how to kill a Remnant". Then again, had anyone actually tried? She was in a room doing research with a pair of four hundred year old mages. It was unlikely any of them had even thought about it.

"Ghastly?" She asked.

The Elder looked up from another of the useless, ancient tomes.

"Have you looked on the Internet for any of this?"

"What?"

"The Internet. The World Wide Web. Computers. Ringing any bells?"

"Oh. No, what use would it be? That would probably just come up with information from_ Harry Potter_ or something."

"How do you know? There must be _something_."

Ghastly looked doubtful.

"Even if its a dead end, it's got to be worth having a look." Valkyrie said. "It won't take long and it could at least tell us where to find the information. And it'll save time we'd have wasted looking through these places."

Ghastly looked doubtful but Skulduggery rested a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"It could be worth a try, at least." He said softly and gestured at the books. "We've looked at most of these books in other collections, anyway."

Valkyrie nodded in agreement and Ghastly sighed.

"Fine. We'll just finish up here first."

Valkyrie sighed and went back to staring at the gruesome illustrations of her current tome.


	2. Chapter 2

**I apologise for the lateness. Got a bit more than halfway through writing this chapter then got a bit distracted with other things ('other things' being college work and the new Queens of the Stone Age album).**

**I've never been to Texas but neither have I been to Ireland so in theory this shouldn't turn out ****_too_**** badly.**

* * *

Valkyrie had the bag with her laptop over her shoulder but still held it close to her as they entered the Sanctuary the next morning. Even though it was 'her' laptop, she didn't use it very often, it was mostly used by the Reflection to do Valkyrie's homework but she was still very protective of it. It had taken her long enough to persuade her parents to let her have one and she'd keep it until it wore out. She didn't trust the Roarhaven mages. She doubted they'd go as far as to steal it but...

"Morning." Ghastly said, walking towards them.

"Did you find anything?" Skulduggery asked impatiently.

Ghastly shook his head. "You?"

"I was waiting until we got back here to look." Valkyrie said, gesturing at her bag.

Ghastly nodded. "We can do it in my office."

Skulduggery nodded and strode off down the corridor quickly, Valkyrie and Ghastly following him. He was just as bored as Valkyrie of research now and he wasn't doing a good job of hiding it. Skulduggery sat on one of the chairs opposite Ghastly's desk and stayed completely still. Ghastly chose to ignore him sulking and turned to Valkyrie.

"Are we going to get started then?"

She put the laptop on the desk and opened it, quickly typing in her password.

"What do we look for?"

Valkyrie shrugged and typed in 'Remnant'. It came up with a lot of definitions and for some reason several christian newsletters.

"Not that, apparently. Maybe this." She said, searching 'killing Remnants'. Again, nothing even close to relevant came up on the first few pages. She tried a few more of the same sort of search but couldn't see anything about their sort of Remnant, especially not how to extract them.

Valkyrie handed the laptop to Ghastly and got her phone out. Research was boring, no matter what the medium. Skulduggery put his well polished shoes up on the desk and pulled his hat over his eyes.

Ghastly was searching for a while before he looked up, hope leaking into his voice. "I think I might have found something."

Both detectives stood up quickly to peer at the screen. There was information about an ancient book on the occult on it.

"Most of it seems like mortal superstition but then there's these" He pointed to a photocopied illustration of a creature that looked like a fully transformed vampire and another that looked like a Gist emerging from a man's chest.

"Where can we find one of these books?" Skulduggery asked, still looking towards the screen.

"There's only one. It's in America." The Elder scrolled down the page until it came up with the owner.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie flashed each other a look over Ghastly's head.

"Johnny Blaze?"

"Apparently. Why?" Ghastly said, turning to look at them.

"There was a case a few years ago, when you were a statue." Skulduggery paused, for once not really knowing what to say. "Blaze was only locked up in the Gaol for about six hours before he escaped. He's only been sighted about three times since then."

"And he isn't exactly hard to miss." Valkyrie added. "Half of the time he's a skeleton with his head on fire."

"What?"

"He sold his soul to the devil."

Ghastly looked at Valkyrie, as if unsure of whether to laugh or tell her to get her head examined.

"That's what he said, anyway. To be honest, at night he looks more like what would happen if Skulduggery started to listen to Napalm Death."

"Thank you for that, miss Cain." Skulduggery said. Valkyrie knew that if he'd had eyes, he'd have just rolled them.

"It's has to be worth a try though, hasn't it? This looks like it might have more information than the others."

Skulduggery shrugged. "If you want to go all the way to Texas, be my guest. We have several cases to work on and the last time I was in the America, Big Foot almost ate me."

Ghastly grinned. "I remember that. You were dripping from head to toe in drool by the time you got back."

Valkyrie laughed. "Really?"

"You wouldn't be laughing if _you'd_ had to clean phlegm out of your own eye sockets." Skulduggery shuddered. "That isn't an experience I want to repeat. Oh, and then I met Gordon for the first time and he threw up on the shoes I had only just had cleaned."

"So I'm going alone then?"

"Yes." Skulduggery said at exactly the same time Valkyrie said "I'll come."

"I'm out voted, aren't I?" Skulduggery said grumpily.

"Yeah." Valkyrie grinned.

* * *

Billy Ray Sanguine looked around the park nervously. He wasn't a man who was easily spooked but the creature he was waiting for really have him the creeps. Typical of Tanith to leave him to meet the spawn of Satan alone while she went off on her own revenge mission.

Sanguine was ready to leave as soon as possible. If that thing was even a second late, he wouldn't get anywhere near what he was after.

A bird flew somewhere behind him and Sanguine whirled, glaring through empty eye sockets for what could have scared it.

"Calm down." He muttered to himself. Jumping at shadows wasn't going to help anyone. There was the sound of leaves blowing without a breeze and Sanguine turned round, using all his self control to stay calm.

"I don't have to wait here all day, you know. I could just go home now."

There wasn't a sound. That's how Sanguine knew it had arrived. A second ago there'd been birds singing and leaves rustling, now nothing.

Sanguine hid his disgust and turned. "About time."

The creature, Legion, glared at him but that seemed to be its only expression. It's red eyes shone with an imitation of life but Sanguine wasn't fooled; it wasn't like Tanith who was a stronger, _better_ version of who she'd been before the Remnant. Sanguine would be surprised if it had ever been a person before whatever spirits were inside it had come.

"What do you want?" Sanguine said, masking his fear with impatience.

_"Blaze has returned."_ it hissed in a voice like a death rattle.

"Yeah, I knew that already."

_"You will kill him."_

"We're on it."

Legion stared at him and Sanguine matched it with his empty eye sockets.

_"You __**will**__ not fail."_

Sanguine nodded and it dissipated away, leaving him alone in the corner of the park.

* * *

**IMPORTANT THING, PLEASE READ: There probably won't be a chapter next week, unfortunately. I'm in Devon with college for 5 days and probably the only Internet I'll have access to will be on my phone. Also the hostel thing is literally in the middle of Dartmoor so if I don't update after that, feel free to assume I've been eaten by a gigantic hound and call Sherlock.**


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